Black Ink
Cover Story
North and South: The Black/South Campus-
By Myron B. Pitts
Staff
In 1951, four black aspiring law
students sued the University and
gained admittance, by way of a court
order, to the UNC I^w &hool, and
segregation was officially abolished at
the University of North Carolina,
Chapel Hill. But in 1990, a clear pattern
has emerged showing that a campus
division h^neverthelessoccurred with
a glaringly disproportionate number
of blacks living on South Campus in
respect to those living on North
Campus.
The number of African-Americans
applying to live on North and Mid-
Campus is on the rise, but this marginal
increase will not likely overcome the
huge disparity between the numbers
of black North and South Campus
residents anytime soon, if figures
provided by the University's
Administrative Data Processing are any
indication. According to the most recent
report, 67.4 percent of black campus
residents live in the four highrises of
Craige, Ehringhaus, Hinton James and
Morrison, with nearly one quarter of
themlivingin Morrisonalone. Nineteen
percent of black residents stay in James,
13 percent in Ehringhaus, and 11
percent in Craige, while the other 25
dormitories contain the remaining 32.6
percent. Eight North Campus dorms
house three or fewer blacks, and two of
them, Lewis and Old West, have only
one.
The hotly-contested issue of the
preponderance of African-Americans
on ^uth Campus has given rise to two
opposing viewpoints explaining the
causes: either the University is
deliberately separating the campus
through a biased housing admissions
policy, or blacks are voluntarily
choosing South Campus as their first
area of choice.
The Hoxising Application Policy: Not
a Factor.
According to Wayne Kuncl, director
of housit^ ^e applications of freshman
seeking housing are processed
completely by computers which group
people based on their social security
number, smoking habitsand roommate
preference. Upperclassmen's
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applications are handled by area
directors who try to place students in
dorms based on the amount of available
spaces left, and generally there are
always open rooms in South Campus
halls because of their distance from the
main campus and classrooms.
"The one thing we can't do is put
everybody where they want to be,"
Kuncl said. "Some halls are invariably
popular than the others."
But halls sought after by one race of
people seem to be largely ignored by
the other. White students tend to choose
North Campus more readily than their
dark-skinned counterparts, who, from
observable evidence are definitely
making the choice to stay south of the
Avery-Carmichael line.
"We know that we have a larger
percentage of minority students living
in South Campus halls," Kuncl said. "1
would think a higher percentage of
black students are requesting ^uth
Campus."
Results supporting this assumption
were obtain^ from a random f>oll of
black and white South Campus
residents who were asked, "What was
your first choice residenthall tiusyear?"
Forty-seven out of 50 African-
Americans (94 percent) said they chose
a South Campus hall as their first pick,
while only 24 (48 percent) of whites
answered likewise. Why blacks flock
down South is an oft-asked question
and one answer seems to be prevalent
among all those interview^: blacks
want to be around others sharing their
background and experiences.
It's a black bonding thing.
"They move down ^ere for the
comfort factor," said Harold Wallace,
vice chancellor of University Affairs.
"The black students have discovered
they are comfortable there."
Comfort comes in the form of
associating vwth people who are similar
to yourself in terms of cultural heritage,
black students said, and South Campus
is a place where blacks can unite and
socialize with one another.
Shawn Willianw, a freshman
Morrison resident, noted that black
students share "common bonds and
common likenesses. Most blacks want
to be around people they can associate
with."
Both Kuncl and Wallace said black
students probably hear about the
virtues of ^uth Campus through their
friendship or kinship ties with the
University. Black UNC graduates
appear to be telling their inconung
freshman brothers, sisters, children and
friends that the "Southern Part of
Heaven" is literally southernmost.
Williams said he was informed about
South Campus and its considerable
black population by a UNC alumnus
and Shelly Faulcon, a junior who lives
in Hinton James, said her cousin told
her. "I had heard that most blacks stay
there."
In reference to the continuing cycle
of former black South Campus
residents influencing the next
generation of African-Americans,
Kuncl said, "We have a historical
pattern that's been established." The
exact starting point of the Black South
Campus Residency Cycle is not really
known, but some have proposed
explanatory theories.
Possible origins of an actual black
student movement.
Wallace, who has been part of the
UNCcommunity for 18 years, and was
around shortly after the four highrises
were constructed in the mid-1960's,
suggested that blacks did not share the
tradition associated with North
Campus donns. Having come to the
University in the 50's, black students a
"decade later could not claim that their
elders had lived in the North Campus
resident halls which have long and
nostalgic histories only for some white
students, Wallace added. South
Campus buildings were not only big
(both Morrison and James have 10
floors, while Craige and Ehringhaus
have six apiece) but modernized, and
this prompted black families, who had
no particular ties to any dorm, to prefer
the highrises. Wallace recalls the story
of a campus tour he once conducted
during which he was told by one black
mother of a prospective student that
Old East, the campus' oldest dorm,
was simply a "crummy-looking
building" to her and that she liked the
nice dorms writh washers and dryers
on South Campus.
Kuncl said he thought the black
movement Southward could be
possibly traced to minority orientation
programs which were at one time
provided on South Campus. The blacks
discovered that they liked the halls in
which they first experienced the
University, so they decided to stay
there.
"As the numbers began to increase,
I think students began to feel a sense of
support as well," he said. "You might
feel more comfortable living in an
environment with people like